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CHAPTER IX 



HELMHOLTZ AS PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY 

 AT HEIDELBERG: 1858-1871 (continued). 



AFTER a few days' absence at Whitsuntide, Helmholtz 

 returned to Heidelberg with his young wife. ' To the end 

 of her life she spoke with emotion of this first journey from 

 Baden to Schloss Eberstein with her husband, whose eminence 

 and noble character were just dawning on her/ On reaching 

 home, he found warm congratulations from his old friend 

 Ludwig, who at the same time expressed ' unbounded astonish- 

 ment at the increasing significance of the discoveries made 

 by Helmholtz ' receiving the modest answer : 



' I wish you did not think so disproportionately well of my 

 work, and so little of your own. We all have our special 

 capacities, and I know very well that I could not have 

 discovered the dependence of the salivary secretions upon 

 nervous control, or carried out any of your other investigations/ 



Under these altered conditions Helmholtz appeared in a new 

 light ; the dark shadows that had saddened his life for so many 

 years were dispersed, and his home was brightened by the 

 charming and universally popular wife, who shed sunshine 

 around her. 



He had already become recognized as the first authority 

 in the scientific world, where he was looked up to on all 

 sides with admiration and astonishment, while his work in 

 optics and acoustics had attracted the attention of the world 

 of art as well; and now his influence extended still further, 

 among other ranks of educated society. In Konigsberg and 

 Bonn his public lectures had introduced his vast and com- 

 prehensive scientific views to the wider circles of the world 

 of science: at Heidelberg, though his circumstances were 

 naturally somewhat restricted, his house became the centre 

 of scientific and artistic activity, to a degree which ordinarily 

 is only possible under more favourable conditions. 



